One Saturday this summer, I had invited my friends over for dinner. The party would have turned out to be a complete disaster, but luck saved me by the distance of an inch.

So my friends and family admire my cooking and baking skills, especially my cookies, which are like no other. The savoury flavour, dripping chocolate and gooey taste is truly something one could never find at a bakery. Hence, on the great demand of my friends, I invited them over for supper, or to be specific, mainly for my cookies which were for dessert. In the main course, I had planned to serve mac and cheese, biryani for a traditional touch, hummus, roasted chicken and much more.

I was so excited and had bought all the required ingredients the day before. I marinated the chicken for the roast, prepared all the main dishes on Saturday morning, but waited till noon to make the cookies. Who doesn’t like the soft, fresh cookies straight from the oven?

I worked really hard, as making cookies was more than just a passion. It was now also a matter of my reputation as a good cook. I prepared the cookie dough, added chocolate chips, refrigerated it for an hour, and completed all the steps required until finally it was time to bake.

So I did the final step of filling Nutella in the cookies and putting them in the oven at 180°C for 20 minutes, after which I went to get ready.

While the cookies were in the oven, I took a nice relaxing bath, got dressed, straightened my hair, wore matching jewellery and as soon as I was about to apply make-up, I suddenly smelt something burning. That was when I remembered those cookies, which had now been in the oven for over an hour.

I ran to the kitchen where I could see loads of smoke coming out of the oven. I quickly turned off the oven and opened the kitchen window so that the smoke could escape as the guests were about to arrive.

The kitchen was a mess now, especially the oven, and I had no choice but to throw the burnt cookies away.

“How could I forget something so important? These cookies were supposed to be the ‘star dish’,” I thought to myself. I had done so much effort and that now all was in vain.

I suddenly got the idea of ordering them online from a bakery that I knew sold delicious cookies. After placing the order, I hurriedly cleaned the kitchen, sprayed some room freshener and finished up getting ready when I heard the bell ring. I rushed to check who it was, praying that the guests hadn’t arrived yet.

Luckily, it was the delivery guy standing with my order. I paid him and quickly set those Nutella cookies on the baking tray to warm them up and after a few touch ups, they were ready. Even though I wasn’t completely satisfied, at least something was better than nothing.

The guests also arrived soon after and everything turned out to be perfect. Everyone liked the food and we had a great time — thanks to the bakery cookies for saving the day just in time. This was something unforgettable and now I am sure that I will never forget to keep an eye on the oven when baking something.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 5th, 2022